i don't think the massive light shows has anything to do with celebrating christmas. but to each their own. >> christmas lights are great and be a grinch. >> thank you to everyone who responded. it is time for kim martin. her 8 month old grand daughter survived three open heart surmingries. this picture taken after the last days of her surgery. god bless . >> baby cath lip rooney not so happy to be on kathleen's lap. happy birthday to maybey and her parents. >> keep sending your card and photos over for year christmas. have a great weekend. "fox and friends" starts right now. >> i am allyson.

the plan to not go off the fiscal cliff fell through. what does it mean for all of our money. >> steve: darn it. a major snow storm strikes in the midwest and move negligent great lakes states and northeast. travelers are being delayed and christmas delivers as well. they stopped the amazon man. >> call them caudy and old fashioned but they are not pretty. we are showing you the ugliest sweaters of the year . "fox and friends" starts right now. ♪ >> this is jack napolitano, wishing you merry christmas and a happy new year from "fox and friends" . >> steve: that's right. today is the first day of winter. will we make it through if the

mayans are right? nope? >> you foal like you have had winter two monthses and you are like winter is only starting . the shortest day of the year. >> steve: plus the great big blizzard. it hit my dad's house out in kansas it is nice to have snow around kiss mas time especially when it is time to put on your ugly day sweater. >> brian: $172 for this. >> steve: it is a one of a kind. >> brian: would you make another if. >> it lights up. >> steve: it has a battery. >> brian: if you are urchingle fester . >> steve: we'll have a little ugly christmas sweater fashion show coming up this hour. in the meantime we'll talk about the big story. dead on arrival.

plan b didn't get out of the gate. you knew something the matter with speaker bope bone called a meeting with five minutes warning. we are going out there and i have the votes. interesting he didn't rally. he pulled it and now they are ading to after bill kristol. >> brian: what is plap b. negotiate with the president and it is not happening and so how do we get it done and how do we avoid massive defense cuts. let's cap all tax rates the same up to a million dollars. if you make over a million it goes up. those under bush tax rates become permanent and vote and go home. when it came time for the respects to step up, they step back. at least 50 said john boehner i will not go along with you.

>> people are questioning john boehner's leadership saying if he can't rally his own people perhaps he doesn't have the powers of persuasion. others say it is the tea partiers that wouldn't go along with the compromise. that's what congressman from louisiana said last night. >> i don't know what the number is. 40 out of the 240. that is not a repudiation . that is the 40 chuckle heads starting with hr1 screwed this place up . he's done everything in his power to make nice to them and bring them along and make them feel included and it hasn't mattered. i don't fault him. he's done his best. >> thank you for your help. he said chuckle heads .

that is a funny word . you are hearing people call out their fellow colleagues who just have dug their heels n >> steve: you have a schism in the republican party. they went to washington. look they are not going to raise on anybody and we'll cut thengs . you have the other faction . republican party saying look, we didn't do so well in the last election . we have to compromise with the president to get something done . that's why john boehner said i don't have a votes mr. #2: if you give me plan b i am vetoing in. republicans were saying we are giving you something and go home. they decided plan b will not pass . they are not coming back until after christmas. mr. boehner said i tried.

you cut a trial. newt kning rich sat down with bill clenton and 30 days of one and one negotiation . he said it is time to go back to that. >> my advice to them have every single committee starting january 3rd hold hearings on every lempt waste in the federal government . let the country see all of the different ways to waste money to peck up on can congressman cantor. speaking is the problem and drive issue after issue . we would like to fix the tax rates, and any time the president and democrats want to talk and they are serious. >> steve: john boehner made a misicalculation . he thought he understanding try to do with the president of the united states and try to do the grand barg 18. we'll get together and come up

with something. but he misjudged all or nothing bent of the president. boehner offered something that went against his core values which is to raise taxs and in return, the president offered him nothing . the 11th hour speaker said i can't do it and harry and barack it is up to you. >> gring rich has a point. the republicans may have lost the narrative and every day here is another example of spend waste, that would drive it home more. but the president has won the narrative war and people say the rich can pay more. they should have done that in the election . now the media will say the republican party is in disarray . the buck starts with the president of the united states . through all of the negotiations he was not serious. >> brian: now the stock market

and you look at stock futures and dow jones industrial average are down 200 and s&p 500 down 24 and nasdaq off 40. european markets are selling off for a percent or two because as we get closer to the fiscal cliff, it doesn't look like we'll have a happiening. >> we'll see. the white house is still optimistig they can pull it off. john boehner is at home. i don't know how they will do. >> there is's phone. >> brian: they can face time. >> steve: they have skype. >> we have a lot of suggestions on how to handle today is one week since the massacre in connecticut. nine : 30 president obama will hold a moment of silence for at the white house. investigators are saying it could take months to figure out why the shooter went on the dead low rampage.

for the first time the midtown shooting, the national rifleman association will hold a presence conference at 10:45 a.m.. it has promised meaningful contribution to make sure a tragedy like this nover happens again. >> in two hours. the retired marine who remained chained to the bed will learn his fate. there is a hearing in mexico to decide in hamar will be locked up or freed. he lawmakers are calling for a national boycott to mexico. >> we are going to bring more attention to this and go down to the jail if he as well to. i call on all americans cancel your trip to mexico. if a product said made in mexico don't buy temperature

we'll need to bring attention to this. >> 150,000 americans cross the border every day. >> mother nature gets the best of the santa. no delays have been reported. many retailers and customers are worried that the storm could make christmas gifts late. ups expected to move 28 melion packages yesterday. >> steve: when i woke up and opened the door to come to work. four boxes on my porch soaking weight. >> brian: you got them. you know you have a butler gently nudge. >> steve: mr. french came in and there is wet package. >> brian: it is like the every man persona? . >> steve: that is funny if only. ally talking about the

gigantic storm in the midwest. look at that causing scenes like that. vehicles are just sliding off of the roads and wfld anita padedia has a update in chicago. >> hi, good morning to you. this is one of the busiest places i have seen in a long time. o'hare airport is busy but not like today, we have a lot of people here today. that's because we have holiday travelers who have already had their plans and place to get out of town and mixing with people who had their flights cancelled yesterday. here in o'hare and med way airport we have had 500 flight cancellation and you have all of those people trying to get out of town and fighting for the seats that are left over from the busy holiday travel we are going right into the

christmas weekend. at this point, not a lot of frustration especially the little ones who are tired with their partners and you know, it is not easy to get them up early -- this early in the morning. reporting live in the airport anita padedia back to you. >> steve: thank you very much. >> brian: 11 minutes after the hour. the deadly attack in our kaye in libya . the testimony we did here and what was left out, we'll go over all of those things when ambassador john bolton joins us next. >> would you run in to a fire to help people in a burning car? wait until you see how they saved their life. >> marthsa stewart had a great tip. us the left hand to spread the turkey leg and right hand to

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>> brian: fireworks on capitol hill as lawmakers try to get answers on benghazi that left four americans dead. >> i looked at the streaming

through the front gate of benghazi. that would not have taken that much to stop the attack if they would have responded to it immediately. >> we learned very hard and painful lessons in benghazi. we have to do better. >> the culture of the state department needs to be transformed. this committee can help maybe the next secretary of state can help. but the fact is a lot of work needs to be done there. >> brian: did the libya warnings go back to the top of the state department. why are underlings forced to resign? you read the report and saw the testimony what don't you know? >> it is very clear that the department had a major error in the assessment of what was going on inside libya and deputy secretary bill burns admitted that yesterday that they didn't connect the dots

this is not just a management failure that led to the tragedy. it is a policy failure. they would not seer did not see the deterioration of the situation in libya because of al-qaida and other terrorist groups. it was that mind set that led someone to deny repeated request of enhanced security in libya and that led to the tragedy. the only far way to read that report when they talk about systemic failure to ask who is in charge of the system and that is the secretary of state. >> brian: ambassador, they were quick to say ambassador stevens was to fault for going tripola to benghazi. but the libya militia that is supposed to protect us didn't like the hours or the pay and so they quit. >> yes, this is the best example we have of the

department in the very top not thinking through what its policiless meant. you know, you can say that libya is one country out of 190, but it is an important country for this administration. they had just finished overthrowing the government of qaddafi, and so the security situation and the question of whether the libyan successor government can protect our people or we should have been our own protection should have been on the top of the mind. >> brian: what would hillary clinton say that fill the gaps and close the holes and answer. >> what did she done and when did she know or do about it? deputy burps said the secretary undoubtedly received memos in prior security breaches in the facility in benghazi and about the attacks on the british ambassador.

approximate after she read them what did she do? put them in your outbox. you have a circumstance with libya with americans at risk. you don't delegate to lower level officials and worrying about the security in luxemburg or iceland. it is a high threat post and they didn't pay attention. because the world view was the war on terror is over and the arab spring would make it better in the middle east. >> brian: you think it is more than the mitsubishi -- mitt romney . eventual she will come back and testify. >> thank you. >> brian: remember if it is too good to be true, it may be a scam. we have a police officer here next with what you need to know. stunning story about the

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>> steve: time for quick headlines. bernie madoff's little brother will spend 10 years behind bars. outraged he's not spending more time in jail for wiping out their life savings.

olympics runner susy favor hamilton traveled around the world as a $600 escort. the 44 year old wife and mother said she knows what she did was wrong. okay, good. over to you ally. >> allyson: no matter how rushed you to find the last minute holiday gift the the holiday season is a busy season with scam artist. joining us is former nypd harry house. >> good morning, allyson. >> allyson: why are you vulnerable if you are a last-minute shopper. >> bad goys do the it with your money. you have to purchase quickly and so let's wire fraud. >> allyson: what is that? >> if you respond to an

unsolicited e-mail. we want a big screen an e-mail might say you can get it for a thousand dollars . we can deliver it to you by christmas time . the bad guys got the money in the pockets now. this is the best way for them to commit the scam because they have the money right there. >> allyson: how do avoid being scammed. only deal with legitimate companies. >> exactly. there is plenty of legitimate companies. >> allyson: if it is too good to be true it is. how do you know, they offer so many sales. how do you know if it is too good to be true. >> you can't get a $5000 for a $1,000. that's too to be true. the puppet scam that is a pure

breed puppy and thracost $5000 . you can see it you can get it when you wire it for $500. you know there is no way to get the puppy for $500. >> allyson: pay with a credit card and not eye check, why? >> i see people go in stores and still using checks, the bottom line every time yourr check account number is out there and second of all, they make you give all . financial information on the back of the check. date of birth and address x. next thing they will drop your dna on the back of yourr check. >> allyson: never wire money to a stranger, all of those ridiculous e-mails that you get claiming that a prince in narobi you shouldn't give the money. >> i win 11 million dollar lottos. you will have to war $2000 in

legal foods . >> allyson: you hear that brian kilmeade? he falls for it all of the time. thank you for the types. imagine seeing this on the side of the road. three people trapped inside of a burning car. would you put over and help them. find out what a total stranger did next. when it comes to strangers. you will not see a fashion show anywhere else. happy birthday to christmas tree sutherland keifer sutherland. he's 53 years old. ♪ ♪

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>> brian: if you call my house last night you got my voice mail. we went to the christmas story on broadway. that is dan loria who plays

ralphie as a grown exup he walks around through the entire play and it was sold out even through sandy and last night it was official. first musical i liked. that is my family and my brother's family. dan when he realized myny few would be involved in drama, he walked him around to everybody in the stage to connect him. >> allyson: your family looks happy to have been there. >> steve: if you loved the movie starring peter billingsley. you will talk about that on the radio. >> brian: you know how you come on the radio on a weekly basis. >> steve: kilmeade and friends. you need friends on the radio. >> brian: i would hope you would be the friend and not the one playing on the radio. six years we are doing and now there is a problem with xm portion of sirius .

on satellite it is so important. xm, the talks have broken off. >> steve: talking about pulling the plug on fox news talk. allep combs and dave ramsey and job gibson. >> allyson: and your show. it is beautiful about it it makes news every week. >> steve: sometimes ally helps you with it. >> allyson: sometimes stuff we say have leggings. >> brian: if it bothers you. >> steve: if our fox radio. >> brian: this just goes dark and i want share this 1-800967-2346. call up and when it say listen say listen care and let them know how you feel about fox news talk going away.

1-800-967-23 46. >> steve: can i call after i get off the show every number. >> brian: you can call while on the show. olivia i am going to be on today. i will recap all of the biggest stories. >> steve: during the commercial coming up. call that number and do the listener care thing and talk about how you would like to see the kilmeade and friend and all of fox news talk continue on xm radio. lice >> allyson: first susan rice and chuck hagel drawing criticism for being nominate. rubio is threatening to push it. haggle opposed embargo to cuba. if president obama were to nominate senator hagel for a cabinet position, we would have questions about the cuba

position . the white house said the decision is not made. >> brian: a good samaritan helped tod save three people in a burning cam rampt the good samarit an was on the scene and helped to pull the front passenger out of the car . busted through the windows to pull out two more people who were unconscious. they are going to be okay. that is incredible >> chris: one texas lawmakers fighting to keep christmas and hanukkah in schooled dwayne wants public school to be able to talk and teach kids religious holidays. the representative said i hear from constitient who believe that merry christmas and happy hanukkah should be protected and not subject to sensorship in his public schools.

he got the idea when his son said they deckerated a holiday tree in class. what holiday would be? >> allyson: wonder what happens to boiling water when it 40 degrees below. hot water freezes faster than cold. throwing boiling water froze it snaptly. >> steve: he made it snow. from russia with love. tell us about rg3. >> brian: you want to know. i am fascinated by that. that is thomas edison in russia. rg3 is ready to go. the rookie quarterback will play against the eagles. i say give him time and he has such a bright future . he missed last week's name with a sprained knee.

eventually the giants will win. he is a football icon in chicago. >> you hear what i said. >> steve: embarrassed? >> brian: mike ditka didn't get his own message. admitting he is a fan of greenbay packers. ditka coached the bears for seasons. he's changed loyalties . who will win the bcs championship. a dolphin in the miami sea aquarium picking the fighting irash over alabama. he hadie choice and he went dolphin. he is 2-wrero with the picks. that is the scientific waya of doing things. for an unrelated top we'll go to steve. >> steve: ugly on the runway. call them gaud yeobscene, but

don't call them pretty. today on "fox and friends", we'll bring you the ugly christmas sweaters on the market. this is the creator of the fashion show. rock your ugly christmas sweater ann marie blackman. >> thanks for having me. >> steve: my son wanted an ugly sweater. >> did you have things. >> steve: he lookeda at outdated things and said it qualifies. how did you come up with the idea. >> five years when they were going to high school and i looked to sell something to help pay for college. i did things that what was trending and i came up with ugly christmas sweaters and started to sell them on ebay and now i have a website that had over six million page views. >> steve: that iscracy. >> we are about to have the

ugly christmas inteter. >> steve: every one of them has lights and ornaments and all available in your website. let's take a look at that. reign - reindeer head sweater. tell us about it. >> it is a 3 d reindeer sweater with lights and garland trim. you can need to make one for yourself . take a 3 d reindeer. >> like a toy. and the rule of tume it is good for the chris has tree good for the sweater. >> steve: where does that plug in on her. >> that is a good question. there is a battery pocket. >> do you feel it ugly. >> i love it >> steve: our next contestant a hanukkah sweater it is's crafty

hanukkah wetter that is cute and adorable and great for a office party and holiday party where christmas sweaters can be fun to wear. >> steve: thank you. this is the sweater dress. there is a lot going on here. >> so this is a sweater address with a 1970's hook run . >> steve: where is it. >> this is a run. >> steve: kitchen floor or wall hanging. this is a cute outfit and you can look cute and ugly. >> steve: how does it foal to wear a rub've rug. >> it is little - on >> steve: very nice. this is our largest onsemble. >> this is gem of gems and party winner.

it is three christmas tree. >> look at that. >> steve: batteris and lights up. >> this one did not like up. i thought it was urnstated without the lights. it has a quulting hoop. >> steve: and look at all of the gems. >> this will guarantee you a trophy on the way home. >> steve: very nice . good look out in the forest. >> couple's sweaters. >> these are custom made. >> steve: who are the people on them. >> these are my partners and i made my parents for them for the last holiday. this is my son wearing it and they are fantastic sweaters with my parent's faces on them. >> steve: that is a great idea. we'll have the sweaters come out for the big finale. you have given them. start with a plain sweater and

find a toy or rug or grandma or grandpa. >> i did a surprise one this this. >> steve: look at me. >> to wear around rour quoholiday table. >> steve: check out her book. it is rock your uglow christmas sweater. it is called myguglychristmassweater.com. >> brian: can i have this. >> steve: you want to wear it. >> brian: my first steve doocy ugly sweater. >> steve: i will try to wrestle it away from him. ally, over to you. >> allyson: that was great. up next a major recall for a popular pick up truck and drivers may be left unable to see. we'll explain that . and he is a bad banana with a

greasey black peel . the grinch live in our studio . he is sitting close to me. >> brian: it is really ugly. lice loyce wear me proudly. >> brian: i am so freaked out . >> steve: it is like aliens. [ thinking ] wonder what other questionable choices i've made? i choose date number 2! whooo! [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego.

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>> allyson: overnight two bank robbers that broke out of prison has been caught. they are joining us in chicago with the details. tell us more. >> good morning, this is a story that captivated chicagans because that federal lock up is in the city and considered that you can't brake out of it. somehow two people did . last night at len:30 one of the convicted bank robbers was

found and arrested here in a small apartment building in chicago's lincoln park neighborhood. joseph jose banks arrested here without incident. he was not armed at the time and neighbors tell me they heard a loud bang and saw him walking out and just like the photograph that we broadcasted on television of the convicted bank robbers. they broke out of the metropolitan correctional center in the dead of night and looked like they made a rope out of the bed sheets and broke through the wall and lowered themselves from the high rise prison 15 or 20 stories down to freedom. they were seen catching a taxicab on michigan avenue and went to the robber's mother's house in the south suburb. last night the f.b.i. made an arrest and we hope to learn

more today. back to you. >> allyson: a rope of bed sheets so effective but today. >> steve: he was the judge to the supreme court and sparked an epic battle and changed the politics of picking judicial nominees. robert borks role can't be defined by the failed nomination or water gate. but he should be remembered for a different reason. the dean of the university us. >> steve: his contributions were great to america? >> that's right. rather than just picking up going home and going in isolation after the defeat, he started a new career . he became one of our leading

public intellectual and commentary . his book is a classic. so his insight in terms of our culture was very important >> steve: when you were dean and putting together the ave maria law school. scalia said hey, you need somebody big. try to get bork and you asked him four types and he said no, no, no . until he said yes. that made a difference for you. >> you have it presoycely right . fourth time he said yes was when tom mon on han was founder and funder of the law school were driving to a press conference and we decided to try the judge one more time, and we did and he said yes . the rest was history for us. >> steve: and the great thing about having him as a part of history teaching the law stune in ave maria. he can recount things he was

witness to. for nstance aside of him being a verb in getting borked by the senate, but a lot of misconceptions about what his role was with watergate. he was part of the saturday night massacre where a couple of guys got fired. but actually his intention was do todo something better than carry out president nixon's request. >> he saved the justice department from going to chaos. he was last person in the chain of command. eliot and the deputy died. there was only judge bork at that time solicitor general bork and he had to do something it is not well known although he has a book he was working on where he points out that eliot richardson said bob, you have to stay there because someone has to take care of this place.

>> steve: true. >> and he did fired archbald cox and replaced him another that did are >> steve: thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> steve: and 111 minutes before the top of the hour on this friday. coming up, a major break for the marine veteran held in the mexican prison for no good reason on trumped up charges and he may now be out before christmas. that would be terrific. plus, ♪ he's a mean one. that's right the grinch. he has designs on ally. she will have a interesting conversation with the harry one, next. ♪ ♪

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>> allyson: can i help you find something. >> brian: it is cuddly as a cactus and charming asap eel. >> allyson: please welcome mr. grinch. >> it is fantastic to be here. >> allyson: do you have a first name. >> no, i am just the grinch. that's all you mede to hear. >> brian: is this an holay you embrarce. >> i do hate christmas, the whole christmas season. >> allyson: why do you hate it? >> people running around with smiles and gifts. >> brian: what does it feel to be created by dr. suess. >> only a doctor could constructt perfection as the

grinch. look at me. lice lice is that your ugly christmas sweater. >> ugly, darling, this is my color green. i could wear a green cashmere sweater. >> brian: how does the grinch steal christmas. >> with help of max when he listens to what i say, we conspires to take the gifts from the whoas and vanish with them. >> allyson: obviously from the children what are you thinking and why is your heart so hardened. >> this is why the grinch is misunderstood. you need to remember darling, that the grinch does bring it back. redemption, darling it is all about redemption. >> gretchen: is that veins or eye back. >> i am camera ready since 4:45 this morning.

what is your address and i will make shower to hit your house first. >> brian: is that an english acent. >> the grinch tramps world wide. would you like to see my passport. >> brian: please take it inside. >> thank you very much. look at >> allyson: we should mention you are appearing at madison square garden. >> yes, i am december 13th through the 30th. three shows and sing dancing and acting extrave gansa. >> brian: it is a defiance. >> absolute low. >> brian: like i dare you to watch. >> i dare you. >> brian: this is when you seem intim dated. >> he has a presence as you would see later. >> he looks fabulous as are

you. thank you for visiting us. >> thank you. >> allyson: now get out. >> brian: you are one mean mr. grinch. >> yes, thank you for your time. >> brian: that is the craziest interview since boxrax. >> i am better than bor ax. >> allyson: cti paying in unused sick day. >> brian: keep going. i will keep an eye on him. >> allyson: rhode island dancing talk . the grinch wouldn't like ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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wow. these are really good. you act surprised. aah! aah! practice makes perfect. announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. there are thousands of teens in foster care who don't need perfection, they need you. >> alisyn: good morning, everyone. today is friday, december 21. i'm alisyn camerota in for gretchen. congress' latest plan to prehave not america from falling off the fiscal cliff falls flat.

what should washington be doing? newt gingrich has been there before and he has some ideas this morning. >> brian: storm system dumping tons of snow, stranding holiday passengers passengers and delaying packages. look how bad the storm could get. >> steve: so many movie, so little time. which ones are worth your ten bucks this christmas? that's just for the ticket. not counting the popcorn. we're making it easy. we'll tell you the ones to see and the ones to avoid. "fox & friends" hour two for the friday before christmas starts right now. ♪ bells on bob tail ring ♪ making spirits bright ♪ what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight. ♪ snot jingle bells, jingle bells ♪ ♪ jingle all the way ♪ . >> alisyn: this morning, we need him.

he is such an icon on the streets of providence, rhode island. he's been dancing there for decades. i remember when i was a reporter in providence, he was always the talk of the town. >> steve: if you're going to get a ticket, you want it from tony. he's been on this program before. he would be outside, but right now we've got a storm going on. it's pouring. >> brian: how happy is america's news writers that they're getting whistled in the morning trying to get ready and hope hemmer is not in a bad mood again. >> alisyn: he's got the moves! >> steve: he's an icon and he's back with us again this christmas. we're going to tony in a little bit. >> brian: he does say it's harder in his body when he flips backward. >> steve: all that hip swivelling. >> alisyn: all right. he's going to join us later and show us some moves. >> steve: john boehner was doing tap dancing yesterday. they thought they were really close. he needed 217 votes and they

passed one bill by a narrow margin and suddenly it was looking bad for plan b. so when mr. boehner called with only five minutes warning an emergency meeting of his leadership in the basement of the capitol, he started with a flag salute which was unusuals, because usually it's really short. then he had a prayer. he started with a serenity prayer. he said, god grant me the serenity to accept things i cannot change and the speaker could not change a number of republicans, he did not have the votes to get the plan b through. >> alisyn: it's interesting. so many people are wondering if some of this is show, maybe the president and speaker bain have hammered out a plan, but they just haven't let their base know. but last night i think it was revealed that there was no plan since speaker boehner -- it's embarrassing for him that he couldn't pull his party together even after trying. however, congressman steven of

ohio said it's not boehner's fault. it's actually the tea party members' fault. let's listen. >> i don't know what the number is, but say the number is 40 out of 240. that's not a repute on his leadership. that's chuckle heads that all year starting with hr 1, the entire congress screwed this place up and so -- and he has done everything in his power to make nice to them, to bring them along, to make them feel included. but it hasn't mattered and so i don't fault him. he's done his best. >> brian: just to know what happened yesterday. essentially john boehner and the president have spoken maybe face-to-face about four times in the last dates and a lot of people thought they were close to an agreement. but it was hitting an impasse. they said since we have 11 days, let's come up with plan b. the president said let's keep tax the same for everyone, up until a million dollars, then put the tax rate higher and do some spending cuts in between. and the president said, i looked at your plan b and i don't like

it. barren said i'm going to bring it to the house and we're vote on it myway. the bottom line is, it's embarrassing because it didn't even pass. so plan b had no future. now it actually has no present. does that make sense? >> steve: it does. john boehner went to the negotiating table and he was ready to make a deal. he was ready to go ahead and cave on a core value which was raising tax. a lot of republicans are in washington, they got there by promising not to raise taxes. you can understand why at the 11th hour, they're going, we can not go against our core value. so you got part of the republican party right now is smaller government, antitax. and then you've got another part of the party that says look, we didn't do so well in the last election, so we've got to do some compromising to get something done in washington. >> brian: grover norquist gave the blessing. >> steve: he absolutely did! >> alisyn: so newt gingrich, former speaker, he's been in john boehner's position before.

he has a theory on what has gone wrong and basically he thinks that the president, it's not really his style to negotiate. the -- we've heard this from the president's supporters. he's not really a deal maker. here is newt gingrich's theory. >> i think president obama has been so much of an orator, lecturer, so much of a guy at the center of things and had so much power with pelosi and reid in the first two years that he really has not gotten the rhythm. he and boehner should be meeting for hours and hours and hours. we calculated one time that president clinton and i met for 35 days all together if you add up the different meetings because you got to listen to each other u. got to say look, this is what i got to get and this is what i can't do. is there someplace in here where we can work something out? that saute' has lot of time. i sense these guys spend almost no time in serious conversation. >> brian: it's up to the senate.

let's get the senate and the president get together on something and the speaker left the building. >> steve: he said it's up to you. we tried to do something. national review on-line writes this morning that the best case scenario would be since time is short and plan a a and plan b not working out, they suggest the best case scenario would be for the president to extend everything by six months and then over those six months, come up with a deal. that way they would avert the fiscal cliff. is that a possibility? maybe. >> brian: it will just be warmer out. >> alisyn: so we will keep you posted throughout the show to see if there is any progress. >> steve: one thing, though, you should know ha wall street reacting badly to this news. right now the dow futures are down about 200. they're forecasting this could be a big selloff today on par with what we had when -- remember when washington injected the first bush bailout of the financial industry? there was a 700 point selloff

that day. they're suggesting maybe not that big, but there could be a selloff through the end of the year. >> alisyn: we will keep you posted. other headlines, including this extreme weather alert. massive snow storm pounding the midwest. it turned deadly overnight. car crashes in several states left six people dead and here is a look why. check out wisconsin where drivers can barely see on the road ahead of them. maybe we already saw that video. it might be a live short of o'hare. fly railroads facing a real mess. yes, this is live. more than 1,000 flights have already been canceled. the storm could take a toll on santa claus. it hit on the busiest shipping day of the year. so far no delays have been reported, but many retailers and customers are worried the storm could make some christmas gifts late. >> brian: rudolph, we need you more than ever. >> alisyn: threats of student revolt forcing dozens of schools in michigan to close.

it's all because of the mayan calendar predicted the end of the world today. we did not get the memo. these schools said it was easier to close than deal with all of the distraction. retired marine who remains chained to a bed in in amex cannes prison cell could find out his fate. there will be a hearing in mexico a judge could decide to free jon hammmar or send him to prison for up to 15 years. he fought for our country in iraq and afghanistan and has been locked up since august for carrying an antique gun across the mexican border. lawmakers calling for a travel boycott to mexico. >> try bring more attention and go down to the jail if we have to. this guy is an american patriot and i would call on all americans, cancel your trips to mexico. if a product says made in mexico, don't guy bye it. we need to bring attention to this. >> alisyn: 150,000 americans cross the border every day. heartwarming return home for a soldier that spent 11 months in afghanistan.

the best part, his mom had no idea he would be home for the holidays. (screaming). >> oh, my god! oh, my god! >> alisyn: army private brad gibson surprised his mom yesterday at her job. she says she had no clue that she would be spending time with her son for the holidays. surprise, metat, family and private gibson at the airport. he also dropped in on some of the younger members of his family at a nearby elementary school. >> steve: that makes you smile. >> brian: let's get that marine out of mexico. >> steve: a would make everybody smile. >> brian: been a painful week for the shootings in newtown, connecticut. much has been brought up about gun control. the nra has been silent, but that changes today. doug is live in washington. they're going to have a press conference today, right? >> they are. we're going to hear directly from them about what happened last week. the president also and perhaps much of the nation will observe a moment of silence this morning

to mark one week since the horrific killings at sandy hook elementary school last week. just as the national rifle association prepares to publicly respond to new gun control efforts, the president is also addressing what the administration says is the fastest growing effort they've ever seen on they're we the people petition site with more than 400,000 signature, they say, to back forms of new gun control legislation. the president took to youtube to send a message to congress. >> i called on congress to take up and pass common sense legislation that has the support of a majority of the american people, including banning the sale of military style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips and making sure criminals can't take advantage of legal loopholes to get their hands on a gun. >> that would essentially reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired back in 2004 and the president is calling on gun owners to support a new law. we will hear from the nra on this today.

after keeping distance from the debate, the group will hold a press conference to talk about its take on all of this. the nra is very likely to oppose any kind of ban on guns and even though there may be growing support here in washington, politically for new legislation, it's also important to know that nra membership has reportedly increased significantly since last week's attack. back to you guys. >> steve: all right. thank you very much. we've heard some out of newtown over the last week and a number of funerals again yesterday. this is a t-shirt that caught our attention. read this. it says, dear god, why do you allow so much violence in our schools? signed, concerned student. then down in the smaller print you can see, dear concerned student, i'm not allowed in schools. signed, god. >> brian: yeah. first time i've seen it on a t-shirt. >> alisyn: i don't know. it's hard to -- i think a it's hard to blame it on that because

the kids in newtown, that is a religious community. you see all the funerals. you see all the churches in newtown. i mean, yes, they're not praying in the school, but these are kids who all went to sunday school. there are searches and churches in that town. it's just hard to stay it was a godless place. >> steve: i think this the t-shirt reflects frustration with the culture in general. when you look at the hollywood movies that are so graphic and you see the video games and apparently the shooter loved playing "call of duty" or something like that, very violent down in his basement, and you dial in mental illness and you dial in -- >> alisyn: it's a complicated cocktail that leads to this kind of violence. >> steve: it started a week ago today. >> brian: let's continue, coming up, more on our top story. the monster storm wreaking harm on holiday travels.

janice will be coming up. >> steve: this guy is busting moves, the dancing cop, tony, is here live. good morning, sir. he's coming up [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do. [ coughs ] [ baby crying ] ♪ [ male announcer ] robitussin® liquid formula soothes your throat on contact and the active ingredient relieves your cough. robitussin®. don't suffer the coughequences™.

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it affects model years between 2010 and 2012. the trucks may not have a secondary hood latch. that could cause the hood to fly up. so far no reports of injuries. what's better than one pizza? two pizzas in one. the double sensation is the latest creation from a pizza hut in singapore. the crazy concoction has two ring crusts and two separate layers of food and a little cherry on top. >> alisyn: gross. >> brian: good job. >> steve: what do you mean gross? it looks delicious. meanwhile, it is officially the first day of winter and old man winter not being kind. massive snow storms pounding the midwest moving through the great lake states. car crashes in a number of states. at least six people dead because of the big storm. here is a look why. check out nebraska where drivers can barely see the road in front of them. as you can see right there, the road in front of them hard to walk on and drive on.

flyers facing a real mess. this is a live look at o'hare. i believe it's the busiest airport in the world during the holidays. more than 1,000 flights already canceled across the -- you can expect things to get worse. janice dean has been tracking this all week. we knew it was going to be bad and here it is. >> none of you have to travel today, right? >> alisyn: no. >> good. i didn't see any e-mails. patience, pack your patience. across the northeast, things are wet and snowy and windy as well. look at these snow totals. close to 20 inches, almost two feet of snow in parts of wisconsin. over a foot in iowa and even michigan, a foot for you. so impresssive snow totals and behind the system it is so cold. wind chill, this is the actual air temperature combined with the wind. so it feels like minus 18 at international falls. minus two in minneapolis. 14 in chicago.

you get the picture. it's cold outside. where is this system? low pressure, the big part of the snowy system is across the great lakes. the cold front associated with it is moving across the northeast. new york, in terms of rain, by midday today, it really should be out of the picture. this is a quick mover, but in its wake it's going to be cold and windy. so any snow on the ground could start blowing on on the roadways and that will cause problems. keep that in mind and be sure to be safe on the roads. how much snow are we going to see? we could see six to 12 inches across the great lakes. but too warm for snow across the northeast corridor. all the kids at home are go, whoa! your travel today, boston and new york, certainly could see delays. moderate delays to heavy. memphis and dallas look pretty good right now. but if you are traveling to the northeast or the midwest, make sure that you're going to call

ahead. philadelphia, again, moderate delays. same for you in chicago and portland and we'll keep you posted all of the travel and the weather delays that are out there. back to you. >> steve: thank you very much. i think it's interesting that you think kids across america who did not get snow with the storm sound like charlie brown's teacher, wa, wa, wa. but it will be a white christmas for a lot of people. >> yes, absolutely. >> brian: or like harpo in the marx brothers. got milk? better get more money. >> steve: why it could soon cost 8 bucks a gallon. >> alisyn: the police officer with all the right moves, the dancing cop is making his way into our studio. he's cut a rug

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>> brian: news by the numbers. eight dollars. that's how much a gallon of milk may cost if congress doesn't pass that farm bill. it expires december 31. next, $2 million. that's how much the city of san bernardino paid out in the three months before it filed for bankruptcy. finally, $75. that's 75 years. that's how old snow white and the seven dwarfs is today. it was walt disney's first full length animated feature and they never grow old in my eyes. >> alisyn: this police officer knows how to party. officer tony la pour,

providence's own dancing cop is back for his 23rd time on the beat. nice to see you. >> how are you? >> alisyn: i'm well. i remember 15 years ago i was a reporter, an anchor in providence and you were on the street and people loved it. they would drive by and everybody ate it up. >> oh, yeah. i remember you when you were a reporter there. >> alisyn: you're good. so you've been doing this a long time. 23 years. does it ever get old? >> no, it never gets old because it's just a lot of fun and part of what i do. i have a company now and i travel all over. >> alisyn: doing what? >> last time i traveled far to decatur, illinois, at this a festival there. i did a walk around. just like i do here. then we did a parade. i dance the whole parade. so some of these parades are two and three miles, sometimes four miles. it's grueling. >> alisyn: how did you start doing it?

>> well, i always wanted to be a performer growing up and that was my dream. and i went on day duty and i was directing traffic one day and i saw a candid camera clip a couple weeks before that and i went out and did a couple of hand movements and the crowd started coming out. then the police department didn't know about it, but they heard about it. then all the feedback was so great and they loved it. so they let me do it. >> alisyn: you stay in good shape. these moves are not easy. in fact, you've hurt yourself a couple times. >> yeah. i've hurt my knee. i got hung up on one of those tweed rugs and twisted my knee. i needed surgery. and my hip bothers me once in a while but it's tough when you're 37. >> alisyn: i understand that. i get that. occupational hazards. where do you come up with your moves? do you update them? >> yeah. i mixed in a victor cruz this year. i'm a big giant fan. >> alisyn: can i see what that

looks like? >> sure. >> alisyn: wow. that is advanced move, obviously. do you have a simple one to show us? >> sure, i have one for you. if your hands get tied up because you're stopping traffic, now you want this -- these people here to make a left turn, okay? so what do you do? every time you move your hand, they move up, so what do you do? you do this. >> alisyn: do it again. >> alisyn: that's great. tony, take it away. we want to see all these moves.

>> alisyn: that one is not easy. >> these are for the slow driver s. >> alisyn: nicely done, tony! nicely done! that was great. another occupational hazard. it's all about the moves. thanks so much for visiting us. >> thank you. >> alisyn: next on the rundown, big blow to religious freedom and big win for obamacare. we'll explain that.

then 'tis the season to go to the movies. which ones are a hit and which are a miss? we'll break it down for you next >> alisyn: let's see it. ♪ environment. unless you have the right perspective. bny mellon wealth management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. we'll uncover opportunities, find hidden risk, and make success a reality. bny mellon wealth management

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be working on the fiscal cliff? >> steve: breaking news right now on that fiscal cliff. speaker john boehner just scheduled a press conference for 10:00 o'clock this morning to explain what happened last night. for some analysis, charles payne joins us. it looks like boehner tried his best to get 217 votes, but at the very end, it was a number of antitax upping republicans who actually killed the deal for the republicans. >> right. listen, let's not forget a couple weeks ago he axed a whole lot of tea party members from key committee roles and i don't know if he should be totally surprised that they didn't just crumble and fall into line. i know everyone feels they have a mandate, particularly the president. but every individual there was sent to washington by people who elected them. i think they felt they were standing up for certain principles. this is a bill that boehner said himself was minimal. he called it himself minimal. and the president's offers were

minimal. >> brian: the president is going to veto and the senate wasn't going to accept it. he's having a press conference at 10. how did the markets react? >> the initial knee jerk reaction was straight down. equity futures crumbled. looks like maybe we could be off 200 points out of the gate today. the stock market is interesting because it's taken a role that used to belong to the bottom market, sort of a responsibility role, the canary in a coal mine kind of thing. it's actually trying to force washington to come up with something. i think really the market was really kind of excited about the idea that perhaps the debt ceiling could actually be off -- the debt ceiling drama could be off the table for at least a year. >> alisyn: we know the market doesn't like uncertainty. so if they can hammer something out, will the market be okay or will we continue to see this? >> one thing we have to realize, from the debt ceiling to tarp, harming out anything does not necessarily work. we had the same sort of market reaction, the market forced

washington to put tarp. but after it went through t went north to 10,000 to 6600. last year action debt ceiling. july 29, the president sign it is august 2. august 5 we collapse because s & p down grades us. we still need something that doesn't insult the senses completely. listen, we're all going to suspend disbelief for a little bit with respect to whatever comes up. but it can't be so obvious that it does nothing but move the needle a few months away. >> steve: it does look like we're going to get downgraded. >> because ultimately we have to take medicine. >> steve: charles, thank you very much. >> alisyn: let's get to your headlines. america passes a new law that cracks down on human rights abusers, from russia coming here. so russian president putin's response, well, he's supporting a ban on americans adopting russian children. putin admits most americans who look to adopt are honest and decent, yes he defended parliament's legislation, claiming it's a reasonable

response. and the u.s. should not be concerned with russian issues. >> steve: the company o i wouldn't by lobby lost its appeal to be exempt from providing the morning after pill to employees. the chain asked to be relieved of the obamacare requirement which they say goes against their religious principles. at least those are the owners. family-owned business says it plans to take the case all the way to the supreme court. it's one of 42 legal actions filed since the requirement took effect. >> alisyn: how would you like to get this holiday greeting in the mail? u.s. ambassador to finland. he posted the muscle holiday card on facebook and also reportedly sent it to some friends. no surprise. when he's not in the office, he's a professional body builder. he was appointed to office by president obama in 2009. >> steve: unfortunate about his shirt being ripped like that in a nice picture.

>> brian: all right. 24 minutes before the top of the hour. apparently game over for tim tebow and the new york jets. the "new york post" confirming many other outlets confirming gang green will try to trade him after the season is over. it turns out they forgot to play him. if no trade is worked out, they will release him to be a free agent in march after they've tarnished his image. tebow speaking out this week and saying he was very unhappy for you and i, that's a meltdown. rex ryan benchmark sanchez as the starting quarterback, but brought in greg mcelroy instead. she just didn't run around on the track. susie favor hamilton didn't do anything for free. revealing she traveled around the world as a $600 an hour escort. says she know what is she did was wrong of the at least she manned up. >> steve: her name is sues yes favor hamilton? >> brian: yes. it's amazing she had time to train.

>> steve: indeed. all right. meanwhile. >> alisyn: 2012 is shaping up to be an incredible year for hollywood with dozens of hit movies. coming out just in time for christmas. >> steve: here to tell us what's worth your time this christmas season, kim mccarty, a movie criticked and the founder of nerdtears.com. good morning to you. >> i love hearing y'all say nerdtears.com. thank you for having me. >> steve: we had you on last week and you did such a good job telling us what we should see. you say we should see will "les miserables." >> this is one -- i consider this movie to be a cinematic revolution. the fact that they're singing live. this is such a huge deal for movies because most musicals have a recorded sound track. so the actors prerecord it three or four months prior. by being able to sing live, they're able to change their emotions and not be married to

the prerecord vocals. i sat down with anne hathaway and i talked to her about this benefit of singing live and is this thank is what she had to say. >> i remember at the end of the second day of the lovely ladies of the tooth pulling thinking, oh, god, that was as far as i had intended to go with my performance and i haven't sung. i have no idea what tomorrow will bring. so all this preparation -- i had to build on it kind of in the moment and if we recorded many months prior to that, then of course i wouldn't have been able to do that. >> brian: she attractive in person? >> i definitely think so. i love anne hathaway. i think she's absolutely gorgeous. in the movie, she's so phenomenal and it's such a devastatingly beautiful performance. i hope she wins the oscar. >> alisyn: so let's talk about the quentin terrentino movie,

"django unchained," like many of his movies, it's violent and hollywood is trying to figure out, i guess, how to respond to the tragedy in connecticut. >> right. this is definitely one of the more violent films of the year. my opinion, i think it's the best film of 2012. quentin terrentino's best movie since "pulp fiction." it is about a former slave turned bounty hunter rescuing his wife but it's only for the adults. it's a masterpiece, my number one film for 2012. i highly recommend you see it. >> brian: let's talk about this movie, before you talk about it, let's watch a little, it's called "this is 40". >> this sounds horrible, but you ever wonder what it would be like if you and your wife were separated by something bigger, like her death? >> i have given it a fair a. thought. >> not in a painful way burks just like a gentle, floating off. >> it's got to be peaceful. i mean, this is the mother of your children. >> and the new wife would be great. >> i can't wait to meet my

second wife. hope she likes me better than this one. laugh will have. >> alisyn: i know you guys have never had such thoughts. >> steve: not like that. >> alisyn: what did you think of the movie, kevin? >> here is the problem, that's the funniest scene in the movie. they have no mention of katherine heigle's character. she's the sister of lesley mann would is having a 40th birthday saturday no mention of her character. it's way too long and has some funny moments, but you're better off staying home and renting "knocked up" or maybe catching the matinee. this movie was not that great. >> brian: could it be because you're not 40? >> yeah, exactly. >> steve: 'cause when you are, things aren't that funny, period. all right. meanwhile, let's talk a little bit about this. it's gotten a lot of buzz. "zero dark thirty," based on the bin laden raid, which apparently we now have heard from some senators, they made some stuff up. >> brian: but we're not sure -- >> steve: that's what the senators say.

>> it's a movie. it's a movie. they are basing it off of a story of finding bin laden, but there will be fictional elements. this is one of the most emotionally gripping and intense films i've seen this year. jessica chastain will definitely win best actress award while ann will take home supporting actress. see the movie. it opened up limited in new york and l.a it goes nationwide on january 11. >> brian: see it, see it, see it. except for the 40 one? >> alisyn: right. we'll be busy. thanks so much for coming in. >> steve: merry christmas. >> happy holidays to you. i love you guys. >> brian: if you prefer to be known as a nerd, that's your decision. >> alisyn: it's a brand. >> steve: next up, a lot of new products promise to give you a caffeine buzz to get by. but there is a hidden danger in some of them. the doctor takes a look and has a warning next. >> alisyn: then pay per message? we'll tell but faith book's new

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to the number 1 club in the world. the potential of manchester united unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. >> steve: quick headlines for you now from the control room. facebook now charging a fee for messages. it's going to cost you one dollar to send a message to people outside your friends list. some say the company needs the money, but facebook claims it will discourage unwanted messages if it's going to cost you a buck. talk about road rage, a man gets out of his car and smashes another driver's windh his bare hands! whoa! he apparently had been chasing this driver all over the road. the victim got to a police station and the crazed driver eventually turned himself in.

i bet his fist was a little bloody. all right, brian. >> brian: i call on the second car on the 18. when coffee doesn't cut it, more people are reaching to so-called energy foods, but with more products promising an extra jolt that hit the store shelves because everyone is buying them, could there be a danger? here with the buzz is about samati. you always told me it's okay to have coffee. how could you be against this? are you? >> i've been a advocate for coffee and i've said two to four cups a day has a lot of antioxidants if you're healthy and don't have major medical issues, coffee is okay because it has a lot of antioxidants. now, there is caffeine and then there is caffeine. what we see over here, number one, is these are not regulated by f.d.a., so you don't know how much caffeine you're getting.

for adults, about 300-milligrams of caffeine a day is okay. anything more than that, i don't recommend it. that's about two to four cups of coffee. here, some of them are actually like putting how much caffeine, some don't. >> brian: i noticed on the back, it says it equals one cup of coffee. >> what does that mean? that adds up. you can have two of these. that's a couple coffees. so you have a lollipops, you have it in strips. so we got to be careful, especially teen-agers. they can get addicted to this. and anything more than 100-milligrams a day for teen-agers, you got to watch out. >> brian: ou for the push by senator humaner and company to make it illegal for under 18? >> look, i think those regulations, it's a little pushing it. i just think we need to use common sense. we got to know exactly what we're putting in our system. caffeine, treat it as a drug. that's what it is.

but there is nothing over here that says how much caffeine you're getting. number one, put the labels so people can make a good decision. and also be smart about this. the way this gets absorbed, it's different than coffee. when you put it in your mouth, it gets absorbed fast and gives you the jittery heart racing going on and that's not healthy. >> brian: are you surprised how popular this has become? >> 5% increase in sales, no, because we're looking at the nature and we're looking for a quick fix. and this is not the answer. if you want to drink coffee, it's okay once in a while. if you're super exhausted, i have no problem with that. but don't turn this into habit. >> brian: now you got to go do a bunch of surgeries. >> and drink coffee all day. >> brian: always great to see you. 11 minutes before the top of the hour. next, college age kid needs a little inspiration meet these folks giving up their winter breaks to help their fellow

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>> steve: welcome back. they're giving hope and helping rebuild the lives of families devastated by disasters. these college students travel all the way from missouri to new york city during their winter break to revamp countless homes damaged by hurricane sandy here in the new york city area. right now we are joined live by reese, jennifer and ethan. they're all students at northwest missouri state university's baptist student one mission team. good morning to all of you.

>> good morning. >> steve: so it's not just you kids from missouri. this is part of a larger project. hundreds of you from all over the country. >> yes. we have over 400 registered students that came up here this week and there is going to be more after christmas break. it's just pretty awesome to see. we come from over 21 states to come up smear share christ and love people. >> steve: jennifer, this is the time you're supposed to be off. you've been here coming up on a week. you're supposed to be at home sleeping late. but instead, you're knocking down plaster and you're getting rid of mold. why? >> it just makes sense. we have this time and we have break where most people don't have time where they can't come and serve these people. it just makes sense we have this time to come and serve them. >> steve: okay. ethan, i know you're wearing the boots now. >> oh, yeah. >> steve: this is some significant clean-up that you are involved in. did you have any experience before you started? >> actually, yeah. i've participated in the job

lynn clean-up and construction work there. they were both mission work. >> steve: in these images, the people are picking up floor boarding and as learn from brian, you've got to get rid of a lot of the plaster and a lot of the sheetrock. you've got to make sure that mold can't set in. what's the reaction been after you have gone into people's houses and cleaned things up. >> people don't -- they can't really express how thankful they are. it's really amazing just to be able to serve them. they were so thankful we were there. they brought their kids and introduced them to us. it was cool. >> they were overwhelmed. many times people would call us angels, like thank you for coming. they were overwhelmed that college students would come and again, give their time and just come and help them. >> steve: did i read somewhere, reese that is correct some of the kids brought toys for the children who lost everything? >> yes. we were given small little teddy bears to give out to these kids. i know personally our group gave

out two or three of them to the kids we were able to work with at the homes we worked at. and that's just good stuff. i mean, you give the teddy bears to the kids who may not have anything left, but it let's them know there is hope out there. >> steve: reese, why did you do this this christmas season? >> i want to serve and glorify god. i want to serve jesus christ. he's my life, he's my everything. i want other people to know him the way i know him and that's the reason. i want to come out here and love people and i want to say hey. there is hope in this. there is people who are with you during this time. we had people working together side by side on their own home and i think just having us there was an impetus to get them moving, to get them reestablished and rebuilt to have that hope they can hang on to. >> steve: it's going to be a bleak season for a lot of people impacted by sandy, but you showing up really has lifted a number of spirits. reese and jennifer and ethan,

thank you very much and have a safe trip home. >> thank you. >> steve: and merry christmas. >> thank you. >> steve: his dad played for ku back in the 1930s. >> yeah. >> steve: all right. straight ahead, still believe in the american dream of owning a home but afraid you can't afford it? what you can buy for $125,000 all across the country. that house looks nice. and practice in rein locked up in a mexican prison for no reason. now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are telling americans boycott mexico. don't travel there. geraldo rivera is going to weigh in on that as he rounds the studio bend here in studio e on this friday before christmas. good morning, geraldo ♪ i am the ghost of cookies past. residue. so gross. well you didn't use new pam, so it looks like you're "stuck" with me. [ female announcer ] bargain brand cooking spray leaves annoying residue. that's why there's new pam.

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>> alisyn: good morning, everyone. today is friday, december 21. i'm alisyn camerota in for gretchen this morning and a major snow storm strikes cities all across the midwest. not only are travelers being a

delayed, but now christmas deliveries are being delayed as well. we have the latest on the conditions for you. >> steve: meanwhile, a major break perhaps for that marine veteran being held in a mexican prison chained to the bed. why he may actually be out before christmas. perhaps good news. we'll talk to geraldo about that next. >> brian: moment you've been waiting for. the winner of "x factor" is? ♪ i'm going to give it one last time ♪ ♪ rocking strong ♪ . >> brian: tate stevens. and he'll be here live. "fox & friends" starts right now, but we're on tape. >> hello! this is the grinch! and you're watching fox "fox & friends." >> steve: man of many voices, like geraldo rivera -- come over and join us. >> i can't believe i said that. >> steve: you were squat not guilty -- squatting in a corner?

>> the 13-year-old -- >> brian: the 13-year-old is unbelievable. >> she'll be huge anyway. the runner up. >> alisyn: it will all work out. don't worry. >> steve: we want to talk to you about the marine being held in that prison in mexico in about two minutes. first we got other stuff. can you stick around? >> i can stick around. i went into lugo's, down to the knicks-nets game across madison square garden. >> brian: you go to every game? >> they were hey, you're here for the game? i said so, i'm here to see "the grinch stole christmas." >> alisyn: how the mighty have fallen. >> steve: a lover of broadway. >> shrinking to the table with all the kids. i was rooting for the grinch over whoville. >> brian: no up with told you how that story ended, did they? the grinch was there an hour ago. >> alisyn: yeah. >> yes, he was right on this table. he and alisyn seemed to hit it off. >> brian: she likes hairy men.

>> maybe i have a chance. >> brian: later, his back hair. >> alisyn: we're losing control of this segment. stick around, geraldo. we have to get to the headlines. extreme weather alert. massive snow storm pounding the midwest. it turned deadly overnight. car crashes in several states, colleague six people dead. here is a look why. you can see it now. check out wisconsin where drivers can barely see the road. flyers are facing a mess. more than 1,000 flights have been canceled. the storm could take a toll on santa claus. it hit on the busiest shipping day of the year. so far no delays have been reported, but many retailers and customers worried the storm could make some of your christmas gifts late. and new overnight, one of the two bank robbers who broke out of prison four days hag be a busted. police arrested 37-year-old joseph banks, finding him in a neighborhood on the north end. the details on his capture have not yet been released. he and kenneth conley broke out

of prison by tying bed sheets together. that age old trick. and going down 20 stories to freedom. >> steve: it worked. >> alisyn: we're less than two hours away from a news conference with john boehner on the fiscal cliff. last night the house deciding to not vote on his plan b. boehner says now it's up to the president to work with senator reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff. the house already passed legislation to stop all of the january 1 tax rate increases and replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts. the white house responds, the president will work with congress to get this done and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy. but it's grim news for the economy. stock futures tumbling more than 190 points. no deal in sight. we have a live report from the white house for you at the bottom of the hour. good samaritan helped save three people trapped inside this burning car. this all was caught on camera. the good samaritan was the first on the scene and helped pull the front passenger out of the car.

all working to bustwindows to pe people who were unconscious. all of the victims are going to be okay. >> brian: thanks to that guy. >> steve: meanwhile, it has been an emotional week of mourning over the 26 victims of the sandy hook school shooting. more details starting to emerge with each day. but we still could be months away from figuring out the whole picture. rick leventhal is live in newtown, connecticut, with the latest. rick, it was one week ago this morning. >> it was indeed, steve. absolutely miserable weather day today. but despite this heavy rain, there will be five, at least five more funerals and memorial services held here in newtown today for the victims. there will also be a moment of silence observed at 9:30 a.m. across the state as well as in new york and new jersey, massachusetts, even the white house observing that moment of silence. and other states all the way down to florida where they will then ring 26 church bells for

the 26 victims killed inside sandy hook elementary. and last night we got word that a gunshot where nancy lanza bought one of her weapons was raided by the atf. no word on what they may have found there. but nancy lanza was remembered at private funeral services in new hampshire with heavy police protection. she was shot four times in the head by her son, adam, before he smashed his computer hard drive and set out on his murderous rampage. investigators reportedly having a tough time retrieving data from that hard drive, which might reveal who adam played his violent video games with, from the windowless basement lair where he may have communicated with others, may have done some research on-line of the investigators trying to glean clues from the hard drive. there are reports also that he wanted to be a marine, but his mom eventually rejected that idea. his motive for killing her and the students and teachers at sandy hook still just speculation. last night the nation's top law enforcement official, attorney general eric holder was here

visiting with local officials without commenting to the press. and president obama also posting a video ontube, responding to that overwhelming number of on-line petitions relating to gun violence submitted by we the people. later this morning, the national rifle association is planning to hold its first news conference since the shooting in washington to respond to all these increased calls for gun control, guys. >> steve: all right. rick listen at all live in newtown. geraldo joins us. you remember the nra. >> i brought my card. >> brian: there is going to be a press conference today. what do you expect them to say? >> well, let me be very clear about this. if wayne la pierre, the very effective, very articulate head, executive vice president of the national rifle association does not indicate that the nra has finally come to recognize that there is no legitimate reason beyond extremely limited circumstances like highly regulated gun clubs or the military or law enforcement for

these assault weapons or extended magazines, i will come on this program after the holidays and i will shred my membership card. i think that the second amendment does not contemplate the arming of anybody willie nilly, regardless of their mental history, regardless of their permanent -- >> steve: you just touched on it. this is a guy who had some significant mental and neurological problems. when you put any gun in the hand of somebody like that and now we see the warning signs of his mother apparently was within -- >> not good enough, steve. >> steve: listen, we've got to figure a way to take care of people like them. >> absolutely true inform that system is broken. >> as a person who has been around guns, as a war correspondent for half a century, i can tell you there is a difference between an ar 15 and even a glock or a 6 hour .9 millimeter. if he had ten shots in a pistol and had to reload and a pistol is much more personal, you have

to point it, rather than spraying with extended magazine, pop it out, put another in, spray some more, that's much more impersonal, much more effective. it's a slaughter machine and i think there is no legitimate purpose for it to be out there. now jump cut to -- >> alisyn: of course, keep it on the gun thing for one second. you know people will say we had an assault weapons ban, 1994 to 2004, and that it didn't really help cut down on assault weapons. >> i think -- i don't know about the anecdotal evidence. i know a lot of it is in dispute, but i want the assault weapons ban reinstated. everybody with reason other than gun manufacturers and gun lobbyists. the thing with wayne la pierre, he went, i think, from being an advocate fort second amount to being an industry representative for the companies that manufacture weapons and those who benefit from those companies. it is not an accident that wall street is shedding these

companies, the buyout firms, the equity firms, the hedge funds are getting rid of their stock. people will not want to be in a business that has blood on its hands. regardless of the problems with the mental health -- >> brian: as you know, the only thing we get out of this is assault weapons ban, we've wasted our time. if that's the only thing we've gotten out of the committee -- >> although i'm about to agree with you, brian. i think you can't speed past that first point. that is my first step, my absolute primary requirement, assault weapons ban and a ban on extended magazines to be instituted now and i want the nra to be gracious enough did ad reasonable enough. >> brian: i'm not worried about you with an assault weapon and 99-point the% of the people. i'm just not worried about you guys. i'm worried about the crazy people who are going to get two or three guns instead of one gun. so that guy, that incident is not about assault weapons. >> what if he had the hand guns

and 15 died instead of 20? isn't that good enough? isn't that reason enough to pass the ban? i think that you have to start someplace. to say that there are hundreds of problems and hundreds of reasons, that's fine. but you've got to start someplace. let's start with the assault weapons ban. >> brian: there is a marine stuck in mexico right now. >> horrible thing. >> brian: are you backing congressman duncan when he says stop traveling there, americans? >> let me back up because boycotts are something else. but i call on mexico to be reasonable here. mexico, viva mexico, we love you, mexico. we understand the relations between our two great nations are incredibly important. don't let this case screw up relations just as the president has announced to the world that he is finally willing to take the whole issue of immigration reform under his advisement and

to do something about it. this will screw up bilateral relations because it is a dumb case. this is a guy who meant no harm in bringing this shotgun on a surfing vacation. this is preposterous. he declared it in the u.s. declared it on the mexican side of the line. but there is, there may be some good news. we thought his case was going to be litigated on the 17th of january. there is news that a matamoros city judge might today, this very day hear his case. >> alisyn: he could be sentenced to 15 years today. >> he may not be acquitted. he may -- if convicted as in many u.s. jurisdictions, there is a mandatory minimum of 15 with no possibility of parole. if that happens, it will destroy bilateral relations between mexico and the united states. it will screw up any hopes of immigration reform and worst of all, it will victimize a marine

combat mirror row who did no -- hero who did no wrong other than to be dumb and naive. >> brian: and wring his grandfather's gun. >> i used that same gun o kill squirrel once in a park in 1960 and i shot him out of a nest. that same gun from a sears row buck catalog, and it so traumatized in me that i never hunted again. >> steve: you can always tell that it's the christmas season here at the fox news channel because every year it says happy holidays, peace and love, geraldo and erica. this is on every door in this building. >> 11 years. i love my colleagues. i honor you for christmas, hanukkah or eid and it's our way of saying we love you. >> steve: the great thing, inside mine there was a $50 bill. >> thank you very much. >> brian: merry christmas. >> alisyn: many blame lax gun

laws for the newtown massacre. what about treating the mental ill? would things be different if people could be committed against their will? peter johnson, jr. joins us with his take next. >> brian: then. >> steve: want to buy a home but can't afford it at this point? >> brian: why you can buy for 125,000 bucks across the country. wow. that looks nice. >> steve: no kidding. >> brian: that's like geraldo's shed. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪

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he >> alisyn: tragic massacre at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut revises the debate on treatment for the mentally ill. should states have the option to forcibly commit those people deemed unsafe to themselves or others? fox news legal analyst peter johnson, jr. is here to shed some light on the crack in our hem health system. >> they should be. 44 states have that. connecticut voted that down. there is six states in the united states that do not have that. connecticut -- >> alisyn: you can not involuntarily commit somebody? >> for assisted outpatient treatment, meaning you're not putting somebody into a facility, but you're saying, you must go for treatment as a matter of a court order. you must get medication because

the state believes you need medication. >> alisyn: why wouldn't every state have that when you see a kid who is clearly troubled, why wouldn't you -- did she. >> you absolutely should, but there are civil rights objection. but some states don't have it. connecticut, maryland, massachusetts, tennessee, new mexico, nevada. bunch of states don't have it. the trend will move back quickly, i predict within six months you'll see those states moving back to the majority of states in the country. but you know, there was an issue and geraldo rivera knows it well, about mental health in this country, about whether the mental health system was abusive or not. it went into disarray, disrepair and dysfunction. a lot of mental hospitals were closed, including in the state of connecticut. there is also a study in the state of connecticut that says only 25% of the children who are diagnoseable with mental illness will receive treatment. that's an astounding number. >> alisyn: it is and tragic. that's a problem. as a legal analyst, do you think

that we should be able to involuntarily commit people to mental institutions? >> sure, and we don't do it and we have the composite to do it across the -- capacity to do it. stigma attached to it. parents don't want to do it. they feel guilty. they feel they've let their child down. they feel there is a stigma attached to it. it's not done. it can be done for the same of the mother in this case and the o 26 innocents that were also killed in this particular case. that's part of parent education. that's part of educating each other about mental illness. it's just like a physical illness and it needs to be treated. this other components as well. how are firearms companies manufacturing guns? where is the federal funding on mental health care that hasn't been there? all of these pieces. we do know that only 4% of gun violence, gun murders in america occur with mentally ill people. but we do know that the massacres that have occurred have occurred because of

presumably and proven to be mentally ill people combined with assault weapons. >> alisyn: that is an important factor that we are all talking about now. >> have to think about it. mental health, big, big part of this going forward. >> alisyn: thanks so much for the analysis. you dream of buying a home, but you're afraid you can't afford it. up next, homes you can buy starting at $125,000. then a stunning story about an olympic runner. she was charging a lot of money for something that, well, has nothing to too with running

>> brian: quick look at the headlines. let's go over here and find out

what the first story is. one of the most wanted men, fugitives is busted. 26 years old. he was caught in fort myers. he's expected of killing a 42-year-old florida man while on the run. authorities say he used fake names and disguises. and you watch the olympics ask a lot of runners and wonder what happens when they don't win medals. meet this woman, she got another job. a bunch of them and it paid really well. she was an escort. a high paid escort. can you believe this? i'm talking about susie favor hamilton. revealing she traveled around the world as a $600 an hour escort. she says it felt good to tell the truth. she's not proud of it, but she wants to move on. she's 44 years old, a wife and mother. and and has a very interesting resume. i don't know who is going to hire her, but she certainly has work experience. back to you. >> alisyn: she's really astounding on this story. none of that was in the prompter. >> steve: i know. there are young viewers watching. meanwhile, a brand-new survey

putting the theory that the united states right now is a nation of renters to shame. >> alisyn: 93% of renters age 18 to 34 say that they do plan to buy their own home one day. but of course, purchasing a house can be overwhelming. how can a first-time buyer make sure they're getting a good deal? >> steve: joining us now is real estate expert and the author of that book "before you buy," michael corbett. good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you? >> steve: fine, thank you very much. as the teases, we've been showing different houses you can get in different parts of the country. you're going to show us how in different parts you can actually get a lot more -- here in new york city, for $100,000, you can buy parking space, right? >> you can buy shoe box in new york city. >> steve: a pair of shoes that she buys is close to that. let's go to knoxville, tennessee r a beautiful home can -- for $135,000, you can buy that. right? >> yeah. absolutely. what the survey that actually we just talked about says is that there are a whole group of buyers, according to truilia.

this crop of buyers will be fueling the market and going into these type of entry homes or starter homes. like this one here in knoxville, when which is a great house, a great renting alternative for $135,000. it's actually a really adorable house. it's got three bedrooms, two baths. about 1200 square feet. and as you can see, it's got all updated kitchen, hardwood floors, great apartment or renter alternative. plus it's got actually a very big backyard, a really nice lifestyle and mortgage wise on a house like this, it's about $600 a month. >> alisyn: and michael, you make a great point, that people -- the mistake they made during the housing bubble was going for your dream house, not starting with a starter house. so people who have just saved up enough money, shear another great example. madison, wisconsin. you say the price of this house is $149,000. what do you like about it? >> you know what? this is a great, again, starter

entry level home in madison, wisconsin, which is an up and coming market again. we've actually seen some price rise in madison, which has been fantastic over last year. it's a great clean house, three bedrooms, two baths. about 1500 square feet. hardwood floors, again, it's a great alternative to renting and you know what mortgage wise? this is about $672 a month. great. this a great investment, great starter entry home. >> steve: right. why pay rent when you can own it? final home is of the trio, this is certainly the most beautiful. for $129,000 in birmingham, alabama, you could have this beautiful house. >> unbelievable. i would move into this house in a minute. this is great. this shows that not all starter homes are boring. this is a beautiful home. this one is three bedrooms, it's got over 1800 square feet. it's on a half acre. it's beautifully done, completely remodeled.

this one really, with a mortgage of $582 a month, is fantastic. plus it's got a guest house that you could rent out. why not live in this house and practically live for free? >> steve: no kidding. birmingham, alabama, i've been there a couple of times and it's the home of rick and bubba. it's lovely town. >> alisyn: that's great. michael, thanks so much for all the tips. >> my pleasure. >> alisyn: they work for the government. how did 35 federal workers get paid a fortune not to work for the public? you're paying for all this. we'll explain. >> steve: blood pressure about to go up? probably. and the winner of the "examination factor" was just crowned. tate stevens, the big winnerment here live next ♪ ♪

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he >> the winner of "the x factor" and a $5 million recording contract is tate stevens! >> brian: season 2 of the finale ended with a bang. crowning its second winner and joining us right now, the second winner live from los angeles, tate stevens. not much has changed in your life. you just got a $5 million recording contract. besides that, it's just like yesterday. >> yeah. really, this is what i do. yeah. what? are you kidding? [ laughter ] this is crazy. >> steve: congratulations, tate. you know, i got to tell you, a lot of the buzz going into the finale was about have you seen that little kid, that carly

rose? she's definitely going to win. yet, there you are with the big deal. how do you explain it? >> you know what? i don't really know. i think it speaks volumes for the country music fans out there. they're so loyal and they're so great and for me to be here, to be sitting here is awesome. i'm blessed to be here and yeah, carly, obviously she's going to be a superstar. >> steve: she is. >> alisyn: 5 million votes were cast. to brian's point, you were a road construction worker formerly. how is your life about to change ? >> in every way possible. i'm guessing. yeah. this is a dream and i'm getting to live it.

like i said, i can't thank people enough for voting and putting me it this spot. this is amazing. >> brian: what happens now? who is going to produce your album? when can we hear it and see it? >> you know what? january 2 i'll be in nashville and we're going to start work. so hopefully soon. hopefully june or july hopefully. >> brian: what are you going to do about filling that gap in your life of not having road construction? are you going to do it just in your free time? >> yeah, you know, do a little asphalt work around the house. >> steve: very nice. he's now an overnight sensation who simply started when he was age four. and with his high school band, and last night he was the big winner. tate, congratulations and the best of luck to you. your christmas gift came a couple days early, didn't it? >> yeah, definitely.

like i said, i can't even really fathom what's going on right now. this is crazy. i'm blessed, man. >> alisyn: stop by and visit us when you're in new york, tate and good luck. >> steve: we got potholes here. >> thanks, guys. >> steve: that's a great story. all right. just 90 minutes to go until house speaker john boehner has a news conference on what happened last night with his plan b. late last night he was gog have a vote. couldn't get the votes, so on his own side. wendell goler live at the white house with a recap of what went wrong. >> steve, speaker boehner says the failure of his plan b leaves it up to the president and the democrat-controlled senate to come up with a plan for taxes and spending cuts that keeps the country from going over the fiscal cliff. but if that's the case, it is more likely to be a plan that counts mainly on democrat support and a few republicans than the other way around. ohio republican congressman was angry last night at members of his own party and defended

boehner. >> that's the same 40, 50 chuckle heads that all year starting with hr 1, the entire congress who screwed this place up and so, you know, he has done everything in thinks power to make nice to them, to bring them along, to make them feel included. but it hasn't mattered, and so i don't fault him. i mean, he's done his best. >> earlier white house press secretary jay carney criticized boehner for abandoning talks with the president after mr. obama raised the income level he was willing to protect from tax hikes and boehner lowered his. and the two were actually coming closer together on spending cuts. >> instead of taking the opportunity that was presented to them to continue to negotiate what could be a very helpful, large deal for the american people, the republicans and house have decided to run down an alley that has no exit.

while we all watch. >> after the vote, carney said the president's focus is making sure taxes don't go up on families making less than $250,000 a year. he added in a written statement, quote, the president will work with congress to get this done and we are hopeful that we'll be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy. quickly is the key word there, however. there is not much time. house members have basically left for christmas. mr. obama will probably do the same today or tomorrow. members of the senate will meet this afternoon after daniel inouye's memorial service and head to hawaii for his funeral. all of them could come back next wednesday or thursday, the end of the year deadline will be staring them in the face. steve, brian, alisyn. >> alisyn: wendell, thanks so much for giving us that time line. they've got to come back next week. >> steve: the meter is running. we're watching that massive winter storm moving across the midwest causing scenes like this with cars and trucks sliding off the road. also canceled over 1,000 flights

so far, one of the busiest spots now, look for gridlock at chicago's o'hare airport and that's where anita padilla is standing by. how are the tempers early at 8:37 eastern time? >> i got to show you how crazy the lines are right here. so right now the tempers are okay, but there is gridlock right here in terminal 3, which is the american airlines terminal. here is some good news. we got some updated numbers from the department of aviation in case you're trying to fly out of chicago because we had 500 flight cancellations at o'hare and also at midway. that creates a ripple effect all around the country. but the department of aviation is now saying that their delays have gone down significant complete they've only got 40 cancellations at this point. and midway is looking really good. they've only got six delays and they've got a handful of

cannulations. a big improvement. we'll get those numbers probably down asment day goes on. they're saying if you have to come to o'hare, get here two to three hours in advance because you got the holiday travelers, mixed in with alt people who are trying to get out. they got canceled yesterday. a bit of advice for those travelers. reporting live from o'hare, anita padilla, back to you. >> steve: thank you very much. the good thing about being stuck at the airport for three hours, can you imagine how many cinnabuns you can have? >> brian: a lot. >> alisyn: thank you. wonder why medicare is going broke? they charge 1,000 bucks for a back brace that costs just 100. and that's just the beginning. our next guest is expose ago scam that will make you possibly sick to your stomach. >> brian: and got milk? better get some more money. why a gallon of milk could cost you 8 bucks a gallon. >> steve: that's a lot of moolae >> brian: utterly ridiculous.

>> alisyn: 42 minutes past the hour. a new report shows big labor employees drawing fat salaries from the taxpayers. it says 35 union officials in the department of transportation are costing taxpayers $4.8 million a year while working exclusively for their unions. and this could be the sour taste. milk may cost you 8 bucks a gallon if congress does not pass a new farm bill. it expired december 31. steve? >> steve: thanks. yesterday we told you about a new report that said medicare has been paying more than $900 for back braces like that one that should only cost $100. a shocking example of how wasteful spending can drive up health care costs and hit taxpayers really hard. but how else is the medicare system being gamed and what's being done to combat the rampant fraud that's costing us ten and hundreds of billions of dollars? f.b.i. special agent brian waterman is a senior agent in the miami office in charge of

medicare fraud and he joins us live. good morning to you. >> good morning, thanks for having me. >> steve: i know you're investigating overcharging like that back brace, not your department. you look at medicare and medicaid fraud. what's interesting, what's going ton right now is you've got a number of doctors who are willing to risk it all to be part of this fraud, don't you? >> well, we have a number of different things down here. mostly it involves all aspects of the medicare industry. when i talk about that, i'm talking about patients, doctors, and the medical facilities. the doctors offer a key component in the fact that anything that is billed to medicare has to have a doctor prescription. and here in south florida, we have a number of issues that involve doctors willing to write prescriptions for just about anything that can be billed to medicare. >> steve: so how generally do these schemes get hatched? is it an unscrupulous patient?

unscrupulous medical facility? or unscrupulous doctor who starts it? >> well, here in south florida, we have a number of individuals that we like to refer to as professional patients. these are folks that are medicare recipient, savvy business folks that understand the business of medicare. these folks often approach medical facilities and essentially offer that medical facility their name, their social security number, and their patient information in exchange for a portion of what that facility can bill to medicare that. facility then in turn needs to find a doctor that is willing to prescribe whatever that medical facility is providing. that doctor can receive a kickback two, three, four, # $500 in exchange for writing the prescription. the really tough part about that is that doctor also sees the patient and gets to bill medicare for that patient visit. so once you have those three components together, you really

have the makings of a great fraud scheme that can go on for years. >> steve: and i understand in south florida you're look at a number of fraudsters in their 60s who certainly would fit the criteria who might need medical devices and medical treatment, but they're just scamming the system. >> these are business folks. these aren't the -- you're not looking at a typical medicare patient that is elderly that really needs the services. you're looking at people that just happen to be over the age of 65 or disabled that are in the business of committing fraud. >> steve: now, if people know -- the good news is, you guys are on to these kind of schemes, you just have to figure out what's going on. we've got a statement from medicare spokesman on fraud. they say, quote, the obama administration has made fighting health care fraud one of our top priorities in medicare and medicaid. these efforts are already paying off. this year we announced a record recovery of $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars. four years ago, that number was

only a little more than $1 billion. now, brian, if people want to report suspected medicare fraud, you got a web site, right? >> yes. that's stopmedicarefraud.gov. if you see anything out there that looks suspicious, please contact us. we really do need the american people's help. >> steve: absolutely. 'cause that's the money that belongs to all of us. special agent with the f.b.i., brian waterman, thank you for joining us live from miami. >> thank you. >> steve: meanwhile, straight ahead, he just got home from entertaining troops in afghanistan. kenny thomas here next. first, let's check in with bill hem who are is live in studio j right now. >> great show. we're going to put it in the vault. but the hairy grump, classic. the sweaters for christmas, ugliest sweaters, epic. and merry christmas to you. >> steve: thank you very much. have a merry christmas. >> thank you very much. house speaker john boehner speaks on the cliff in one hour. we'll have that live for you.

the markets we know are heading lower. that happens at 9:30 at the same time. a moment of silence for the victims of sandy hook, the bells will ring 26 times. there are six more funerals today in newtown. busy friday morning and martha and i will see you in ten short minutes on "america's newsroom" but we can still help you see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. all in one place. i'm meredith stoddard and i helped create the fidelity guided portfolio summary. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala!

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>> alisyn: our next guest just returned home from entertaining the troops in afghanistan and he knows how important that is. kenny thomas was an army ranger and served in the battle of mowing dee show. >> brian: now he's a country singer and he's to my left with his guitar. welcome back. >> good morning, how are you? thanks for having me. >> brian: what's tougher? surviving in the battlefield or making it in the music business?

>> music business is a much longer haul. it's easy to get sent over in the military, 'cause there is hope, pick me. this one is more pick me and no one wants to pick you. so you have to kind of walk that long road. i love it. i'm happy to be here, man. >> alisyn: so you just got back from afghanistan. tell us what you did over there. >> i took some song writers, big-time song writers, billy month month and others and -- montana and hit operating bases as part of armed forces. >> brian: are you crazy? >> i love it. we were sitting there one day and hillary is going, is this place dangerous? no, it's not dangerous. and all of a sudden, they're like, incoming and hillary is under the table. and i'm like, i lied. it's kind of dangerous. >> alisyn: what are you going to sing? >> a song called "the bugler." it's a what if song, a guy who stood between two armies and had them lay down their weapons for christmas. here we go.

♪ dozen on the front line still miss ago name ♪ ♪ laying down their weapons boys who want to fight ♪ ♪ he stood between the armies in the middle of the field ♪ ♪ battle raids around him but the bugler refused to yield ♪ ♪ as he played ♪ come on ye faithful ♪ and he played oh, silent night ♪ ♪ and he played so they could hear him on both sides ♪ ♪ he said think about your mother ♪ ♪ and think of me as your brother ♪ ♪ gunning down each other in this holy war ♪ ♪ what in god's name are we fighting for ♪

♪ there is a general is our puzzle ♪ ♪ but the boys know what to do ♪ soon the leaders follow yeah ♪ 'cause they've got children too ♪ ♪ they're calling for a cease fire as the bugle sounds retreat ♪ ♪ it seems fitting it be music that could mark a war's defeat ♪ ♪ as he played come on ye faithful ♪ ♪ and he played old silent night ♪ ♪ and he played so they could hear him on both sides ♪ ♪ and he said, think about your mother ♪ ♪ and think of me like your brother ♪ ♪ could we quit gunning down each other in this holy war ♪ ♪ what in god's name are we

fighting for ♪ ♪ yeah, if i shot you down for jesus ♪ ♪ or you killed me for allah ♪ oh, would we both laugh up in heaven ♪ ♪ at the absurdity of it all ♪ something going down in the city ♪ ♪ the cabbies are stopped ♪ buses and the subway should be running but they're not ♪ ♪ can't help but wonder and they're spilling out in the streets ♪ ♪ high in the air of old times square 1,000 doves appear ♪ ♪ and we sang come on ye faithful ♪ ♪ and we sang for you would lang snne. and we sang so they could hear us like a bugle in the night ♪

♪ for our children and our mothers ♪ ♪ for our sisters and our brothers ♪ ♪ can we quit gunning down each other in this holy war ♪ ♪ lord what in god's name are we fighting for ♪ ♪ mmm what, in god's name are we fighting for ♪ [ cheers and applause ] light chp and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. bass proshops has plenty of great last minute gift ideas, like...

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>> brian: if you listen to fox news talk on xm radio, could be going away january 1. that's where kilmeade and friends is and alisyn and gretchen and steve hop on with me. so call if